Mischief Under the Mistletoe
by ilovetvalot
Summary: Sequel to "The Story Behind the Story". Can be read as a standalone. In the wake of Erin's heart attack, can Rossi help her find her Christmas spirit? Written in repsonse to the TV Prompt Challenge: Neighbours - "In Sickness and In Elf". TWOSHOT!
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Just a reminder, December 25th is right around the corner. Everyone that signed up for the CM Christmas Fic Exchange, please remember your stories. We want this to be a WONDERFUL gift experience for all involved. If you have any questions, feel free to pm either myself (ilovetvalot) or tonnie2001969.**_

_**Finally, if any of you have any idea for issues/activities that you'd like to see "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" forum tackle in the form of discussion threads and/or challenges, please let us know. We want to bring you all some really fun threads in the New Year!**_

_**As always, thank you to every reader, reviewer, favoriter, and alerter that enjoys our stories. Hearing from each of you means a great deal. Now, on with our story!**_

_*****This is the sequel to "The Story Behind the Story".*****_

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**Mischief Under the Mistletoe**

**Chapter One**

**TV Prompt: Neighbours - "In Sickness and in Elf"**

As Erin Strauss stood on the fringes of the BAU bullpen watching the holiday festivities unfold around her, she couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips. Of all the places to be, this was the last place she had expected to find herself. But then, she reminded herself darkly, nothing had been going according to her schedule for months.

And she knew exactly who to blame for such a travesty.

Her eyes found him easily, still tall, dark and devastatingly handsome even after all these years, she thought bitterly. While she'd struggled with wrinkles and hot flashes, he'd only gotten better with age. How fair was that, she asked herself, bile rising in her throat as she took another sip from her glass. Nothing was as it seemed, no matter how hard she tried to make it so.

She only had one certainty anymore: Unrequited love was a bitch...and incidentally, it had made her into one as well.

If she had known how things would turn out, she would have seriously considered putting him out of her misery decades ago. But time, being the eternal equalizer that it was, had managed to bring them to this point. True, things were better now between them than they had been in years. Nearly dying in someone's arms tended to create a bond. Or in their case, deepen an existing connection.

And, of course, it didn't hurt that he had finally realized she was not an incarnation of Satan himself….or herself, as the case may be.

All things considered, she should have been quite happy with the way things had turned out. After all, he'd saved her life.

Although, it had never been her plan to have a heart attack in the middle of her office while trying to navigate the land mines that were exploding around her. The budget had been shattered; she had been forced to let valuable personnel transfer to higher ranking divisions, which almost every member of her staff had blamed her for. And on top of all of that, she had dealt with her husband's feckless defection and her own body's less-than-cooperative attitude. Her doctor called it the "perfect storm"; she preferred "freakish hurricane". After all, she had survived the following surgery and rehab, hadn't she?

She was alive.

If you called this living...standing in the corner during an obviously entertaining party while holding up a wall and drinking spiked eggnog.

She should have been pleased.

She wished her brain would explain that to her melancholy heart. Of course, where the issue of David Rossi was concerned, those two organs hadn't been on speaking terms for countless years.

Unfortunately, all her morose newly-repaired heart wanted for Christmas was him.

She knew she should be satisfied with this new peace they'd found between each other. No longer was there bitter animosity hanging between them, the proverbial air having been cleared with the assistance of a loose lipped nurse, an unusually forthcoming Jason Gideon and her very own personal assistant. It was just her luck that all three of those people had chosen to share her well-hidden past with a very inquisitive David Rossi when she couldn't guarantee their silence. She had never told him that she had miscarried their child…he had always believed she had chosen to remove a burden when she had desperately wanted the coming joy. And that violent difference had shattered any hope of a future they could have had…once upon a time.

But it had turned out well, in a way. They had reached their harmony. But despite all that, she still yearned for more.

Her heart, fickle traitor that it was, still wanted to find him in her Christmas stocking.

And it appeared that at least one of the Christmas gods was tuned in on her airwaves. Her lips twitched as she watched the man of her thoughts approaching her, a green elf's cap perched precariously on his dark head. Shaking her blonde head, she merely raised an eyebrow.

"You realize this is a party and not a funeral, right?" Dave asked as he stopped in front of her, one dark brow tilting as he grinned in her direction.

"I came, didn't I?" she returned evenly.

"Only because I blackmailed you," Dave snorted, shaking the low glass in his hand, ice tinkling against the sides.

"Threatening me with a bunch of caroling profilers on my doorstep wasn't risk I was prepared to take," Erin murmured, well aware of his ability to follow through on any threat he deemed worthy. "That, and I knew you were fully prepared to implement a more diabolical plan."

"You need to start mingling more," Dave shrugged easily, leaning his shoulder against the wall beside her as he took a healthy sip from his almost empty glass. "You've barely been out at all since your heart attack."

"You're the one that indicated you thought I should take things slowly," Erin murmured, raising her own glass to her lips, determined to maintain her composure.

"Slowly, yeah," Rossi grunted. "I didn't say you should drag your feet, Erin. Even Amanda has noticed," Dave remarked, naming Erin's loyal assistant and current watchdog-cum-pitbull. "You aren't yourself."

"Don't nag, David," Erin smirked, shaking her head as she canted her eyes in his direction. "It's ungentlemanly," she taunted.

Raising an eyebrow, Dave smiled. "We both know I'm no gentleman, m'dear. And as I recall, that was one of the things you liked best about me once upon a time."

Smiling in spite of herself, Erin laughed. "It had a certain appeal. Back then," she added pointedly, determined to keep him on his toes as well as he had been doing to her during her rehab.

Taking the glass she held from her hands, Dave took a sip of the eggnog and grimaced. Shooting her a condemning look, he muttered, "You aren't supposed to have alcohol yet."

I'm not supposed to still be in love with you either, Erin thought tiredly. And yet, I am. Meeting his eyes, she retorted, "It was only one glass. And you're nagging again."

Frowning at her, Dave carefully dropped the glass on the desk nearest them, letting his follow, water rings immediately surrounding both. "You know, ignoring the doctor's orders isn't really the way to stay on my good side, Erin. I didn't sit beside a hospital bed and cheer you through three months of cardiovascular rehab to see you undo all my hard work now."

"Your hard work," Erin retorted, her cheeks flushing as she turned fully toward him, her hands falling to her hips. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that you were subsisting on rabbit food and walking yourself to death on a treadmill every day."

"Boo hoo," Dave deadpanned, his face stern as he glared in her direction. "You're alive, Erin. Which, according to several doctors, is a miracle in and of itself. Behave yourself."

"Do you hear yourself?" Erin shook her head, once again amazed at the man's ability to push her toward the edge within ten seconds. "You telling me to behave myself? It's absurd."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Just a reminder, December 25th is right around the corner. Everyone that signed up for the CM Christmas Fic Exchange, please remember your stories. We want this to be a WONDERFUL gift experience for all involved. If you have any questions, feel free to pm either myself (ilovetvalot) or tonnie2001969.**_

_**In other forum news, please check out our newest discussion thread, "Serious vs. Light - Which gets the most response?" It is a discussion of serious vs light stories and the response they get from readers. We also have new interviews with Clarebones and musicxlife4 up for your reading pleasure.**_

_**Also please check out the discussion thread entitled, "The Fine Line Between T and M ratings". There's a great ongoing discussion there, too.**_

_**Finally, if any of you have any idea for issues/activities that you'd like to see "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" forum tackle in the form of discussion threads and/or challenges, please let us know. We want to bring you all some really fun threads in the New Year!**_

_**As always, thank you to every reader, reviewer, favoriter, and alerter that enjoys our stories. Hearing from each of you means a great deal. Now, on with our story!**_

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**Mischief Under the Mistletoe**

**Chapter Two**

"Well, consider it a Christmas miracle and get over it," Dave ordered tersely, turning to point toward her glass. "And stay away from the spiked eggnog."

"You used to encourage me to misbehave," Erin reminisced, voice low, nodding at a group of agents as they passed, their smiling expressions informing her that she hadn't been the only imbibing from the special bowl that evening.

"That was before you tried to die on me. I've made a lot of revisions in our relationship, Babe. You didn't get the newest edits?" he asked sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest.

Pursing her lips, Erin rolled her eyes. "You do realize that I'm well past the age of consent, don't you?"

Eyes darkening, Dave stared at the woman beside him as he took a step closer, backing her against the wall. "Are you trying to piss me off, Erin?"

Was she? At this point, she wasn't sure of anything other than the fact that his proximity to her might very well drive her insane. "David, may I remind you that I didn't want to come tonight. You insisted, and in the interest of our tentative truce, I decided to oblige your request. Between you and Amanda's bullying, I simply surrendered, but don't think that gives you any sort of say-so over my decisions..."

"Oh, will you remove the stick from your ass?" Rossi asked, torn between his irritation at her and the attraction he felt to her. Dressed in a form fitting red dress, she was a temptation he was only barely resisting. Over the last several weeks, he'd been forced more than once to reign in his libido. And this evening was proving to be no different...her biting retorts and flashing eyes only serving to make her more appealing. And while he was rational and self-aware enough to admit that she'd always been tempting, their recent reconciliation made him feel like a drowning man that had been allowed sight of dry land…he only wanted to swim faster.

"I beg your pardon," Erin seethed, her eyes narrowing as she felt her anger rising, overtaking her earlier attraction. Trust Rossi to destroy whatever happy moments they might be reaching for, she thought darkly, her fingers itching to grab the nearby cup and dump the contents over his over-inflated head.

"You heard me," Dave murmured, his own eyes twinkling as he stared back at her.

"I'm leaving," Erin said briskly, turning toward the door, deciding that retreat was the better part of valor in this situation.

Grinning as he watched her whirl away from him, her blonde hair flying behind her as she weaved her way through the crowded floor, he pursued her at a leisurely pace, enjoying the sway of her hips as she walked ahead of him. Waiting until she'd reached the BAU's threshold, he made his move, grabbing her arm in a gentle grip and spinning her around to face him. "Not so fast, Erin. Where's my gift?" he asked petulantly.

"What?" Erin sputtered, trying to find her balance in her rapidly spinning world.

"My. Gift," Dave said, enunciating each word clearly as he tugged Erin into the deserted hallway, backing her against the wall.

"I don't...I haven't..." she floundered, cheeks reddening at his blunt question.

"Now, don't fret," Dave chided, backing her down the wall into a shadowed corridor. "I already know what I want. I'll make it easy for you. After all, if you're willing to break the good doc's rules in one area, you won't mind skating in another, will you?"

"David, what in the world are you talking about?" Erin gasped as Rossi's hands found her hips and lightly pushed her into a darkened corner. Her eyes seemed to be glued to his as she found herself being pulled against him, her body willingly falling victim to the wonderful warmth he offered.

"If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm obviously not as good at this as I used to be," Dave chuckled, is body crowding hers. "I'm talking about my gift, Erin. And you're getting off cheap...All I'm asking you for is a kiss under the mistletoe. Run with it," he recommended against her cheek.

Reeling, Erin's eyes widened as Dave's head descended toward hers. "But there's no mistletoe," she protested breathlessly, clutching at the lapels of his jacket, her fingers sinking against the wool as she sought to hold tight to any solid surface.

Grabbing a leaf from the potted fern in the corner, Dave grinned. "We'll improvise," he winked before lowering his lips to hers. Groaning as her lips parted underneath his, Dave tangled his tongue with hers. Familiar feelings flooded him as he wrapped her in his embrace, deepening the kiss, wanting to draw it out. Even after years of heated antagonism followed by icy silences, he still recognized perfection when he touched it...and he and Erin had been magic together when it had been good. Touching her again only served as a reminder of that simple truth.

Forget the kiss, he wanted to take his gift home and finish unwrapping the entire package.

Sinking against him, Erin met her former lover's kiss head on, immersing herself in those long denied sensations only he could create within her. Tightening her arms around his neck to convince herself that this moment had finally arrived, she trembled in his arms.

Finally forcing himself to pull away, Dave leaned his chin against her soft hair as he kept his arms securely around her waist. "I've missed you," he admitted huskily, unable to release her entirely.

Unable to speak, Erin merely nodded against his strong shoulder. "I've missed you, too, David," she confided when she could form intelligent words again. Softening against him, she asked softly, "Do you believe in Christmas miracles?"

Smiling against her hair, Dave nodded. "I do," he replied deeply, sliding his hands up and down her back. "Especially since the angels just delivered mine."

And after twenty-five years of never allowing David Rossi to see her cry, Erin Strauss felt her control suddenly evaporate, the brick walls falling with a violence that shocked her as she sobbed against his neck.

For the pain they'd each endured, for the baby they'd lost...and for the new beginning they'd finally found together.

They'd come full circle.

_**The End.**_


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